I sat among my slain companions for many hours, though time might have ceased for all I knew. I stared off across the lake, its waters illuminated by the glow of the crystal shards.

I remember 'twas Faulina's hand that I held during those hours.

And 'twas her hand that first trembled with a new life.

The shards embedded in each of my companions suddenly flared. While they pulsed with a brilliant glow, cracks of light spread across the bodies of my companions like luminous veins. The rents in my companion's flesh widened, spilling forth a ghastly radiance.

Something emerged from each of the bodies—shadows born from wombs of light.

They rose before me as the glow of the shards dimmed: Three beings robed in darkness, eyes burning with the blood of my friends.

One raised a hand, a shadow draped in darkness. A silver arrow crystallized at the tip of its finger.

The arrow struck my chest, and I fell among the bodies of those I had slain.